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Previewing George Mason vs Hofstra

George Mason Basketball: Previewing George Mason vs Hofstra

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Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Previewing George Mason vs Hofstra

Game is on ESPN3 or watch free live stream here

We've already seen the school's dramatic promo for this game against Hofstra, as the Patriots try to separate themselves from the three-way tie for first in the CAA standings tonight. Last time versus Hofstra we saw Mason need late game heroics as it came down to the wire.  It wasn't very encouraging to watch against a Hofstra Pride team that has only won two conference games to date.  The Patriots however have been strong at home and hopefully this time won't have the troubles on offense they did during that last meeting.  I seriously doubt Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison will be held to a combined 10 points this time around.

The Patriots have been living off points from the free-throw line lately. Against ODU last Saturday they shot below 30% from the field but got to the line for 35 free-throw attempts.  While that is one of their strengths it would be nice to just see them convert some easy baskets.  Opposing defenses are giving them the outside open looks because they know they can't hit them and it is disrupting the Patriots flow on offense. Pearson needs someone to go to when he's double-teamed and their offense gets very one-dimension when no one is hitting outside shots or making lay-ups.

Something to watch for is who is running the point more in this game.  Hewitt went with freshman Corey Edwards late, which was a head-scratcher, but maybe he was looking for more of a facilitator to get things going on a sluggish day for the Patriots. Bryon Allen is the better scorer and seems to be improving but the move on the Saturday seems to make me think Hewitt still might favor Edwards as that true point guard.  Edwards still makes way too many mistakes in my opinion and I think Allen has shown he's more than capable of running of the show. Allen was having an off day against ODU (0-7 from the field) and Hewitt probably just pulled him to help give the team a spark.  Nevertheless it's getting too late in the season to have instability in the backcourt.

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Christopher Hirsch said...

Let's blow this sorry team out. Enough with letting bad teams hang around.

9:58 AM  
Anonymous Chris Nguyen said...

Throughout the season, I thought Allen was usually the one making the dangerous pass or dribbling out of control. With Edwards, he seems to have a more fundamental, though very vanilla, approach to his game. Edwards is a much more steady player IMO, but Allen certainly has more potential to go on a hot streak with both his drives to the basket and throwing the pretty passes. That said, I would take the consistency over big-play ability at this stage until Allen can negate the big negative plays...

10:40 AM  
Anonymous GMURULES said...

Chirs, Cory may be more fundamentally a PG, but he dribbles himself into trouble quite often.  He will dribble into the lane, not looking to shoot but pass, get triple teamed and then gets it stolen.  He did this often against ODU and other teams this season.  He also picks up the dribble early at times.  the kid is going to be good and a good PG, but he really has to be careful not to go into traffic without a game plan. It will come with time. 

11:14 AM  
Anonymous Moses said...

Second that. He'll make his mistakes but he seems to overall have nice court sense. What bailed him out several times against ODU was Pearson coming out and back to the ball. But Edwards did too often go into the land of the giants with no exit strategy and got mugged.

I'm more interested in the possibilities it creates for Allen if Edwards does well at point. BA can attack with the ball from the wing, playing sort of a second point but with significant offensive threatability. I just invented a word. Cool.  

12:26 PM  
Anonymous Charlie T said...

Thus far the one thing several if not all of the teams in the CAA hope for(It they would admit it) is that we do not start to play to our true ability and talent. Look at the NFL Giants with how they were playing back when they lost to Washington. Oh and yes I will also give it to VCU last year when we beat them. Once a team starts to play well it becomes a habit. As someone said on this site it is time. Look out league when it starts.

12:48 PM  
Anonymous Ross_williams1 said...

A blow out would be nice. It may change my view of this team to enthusiastic from cautiously optimistic.

12:49 PM  
Anonymous Chris Nguyen said...

Good points on Edwards. This is where Cam and Luke excelled so well last year, to different degrees. It's scary to think how good this team would be had Luke stayed on board and serving as the glue guy, especially as a point-forward and possibly main PG option in breaking the press, which is clearly this team's main weakness. 

5:03 PM  

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